Dress
An hourglass silhouette with a princess-seamed structure called the "cuirasse" was created with a high waist, just an inch or two under the bust. It was an upholstered, exaggerated shape achieved with a corset and a spoon busk to cup and re-form the abdomen. American dress reformers, many newly directed former anti-slavery advocates, came together in the 1870s in specific opposition to such deliberate body molding.
Artwork Details
- Title: Dress
- Manufacturer: Textile by James McCreary and Co., N.Y. (American)
- Date: 1876–78
- Culture: American
- Medium: silk
- Credit Line: Gift of the Misses Faith and Delia Leavens, 1941
- Object Number: C.I.41.58.1a, b
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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